The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories, The Town of the Snake-girls, sentence 80
There are old men here now who claim that their great-grandfathers used to see the two huge rattlesnakes basking on the cliffs of the mesa of Shee-em-tóo-ai, and that the snakes always wept when people came near them.
Who acts: old men, great grandfathers, two huge rattlesnakes, snakes, people · What happens: be, claim, use, see, bask, weep · To what, where: two huge rattlesnakes, cliffs · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, The Town of the Snake-girls. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old men, great grandfathers, two huge rattlesnakes, snakes), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 are | expl |
| 2 | are | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 men | amod |
| 4 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 claim | nsubj |
| 5 | here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 men | advmod |
| 6 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 8 claim | advmod |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 claim | nsubj |
| 8 | claim | claim | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 are | parataxis |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 14 used | mark |
| 10 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 grandfathers | nmod:poss |
| 11 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 grandfathers | amod |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 great | punct |
| 13 | grandfathers | grandfather | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 used | nsubj |
| 14 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 claim | ccomp |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 see | mark |
| 16 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 used | xcomp |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 rattlesnakes | det |
| 18 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 20 rattlesnakes | nummod |
| 19 | huge | huge | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 rattlesnakes | amod |
| 20 | rattlesnakes | rattlesnake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 see | obj |
| 21 | basking | bask | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 20 rattlesnakes | acl |
| 22 | on | on | ADP | _ | 24 cliffs | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 cliffs | det |
| 24 | cliffs | cliff | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 basking | obl |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 mesa | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 mesa | det |
| 27 | mesa | mesa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 cliffs | nmod |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 35 ai | case |
| 29 | Shee | Shee | PROPN | Number=Sing | 35 ai | nsubj |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 29 Shee | punct |
| 31 | em | em | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 ai | compound |
| 32 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 33 tóo | punct |
| 33 | tóo | tóo | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 ai | compound |
| 34 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 33 tóo | punct |
| 35 | ai | ai | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 mesa | nmod |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 wept | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 wept | cc |
| 38 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 42 wept | mark |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 snakes | det |
| 40 | snakes | snake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 wept | nsubj |
| 41 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 42 wept | advmod |
| 42 | wept | weep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 used | conj |
| 43 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 45 came | advmod |
| 44 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 45 came | nsubj |
| 45 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 wept | advcl |
| 46 | near | near | ADP | _ | 47 them | case |
| 47 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 came | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 are | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | present | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | claim speech: other | present | old men | now | who nsubj | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||
| 3 | use | past | people's great grandfathers | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | see | to-infinitive | people's great grandfathers not said here | the two huge rattlesnakes | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rattlesnake=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | bask | gerund | the two huge rattlesnakes not said here | the cliffs of the mesa of em tóo ai Shee | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | weep | past | the snakes | always property | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | come | past | people | near snakes = snake | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near they=Location |
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.
Text: «The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories» by Charles Fletcher Lummis, Project Gutenberg book 77804 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg77804/22/80/